IDW has expressed that continuing as a company is a “going concern” after Diamond bankruptcy. Valiant delays Beyond relaunch. DC Comics has canceled the orders for the Sandman #8 facsimile edition.
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Episode Transcript:
IDW expresses “doubt” about continuing as a company.
Valiant delays Beyond relaunch.
DC cancels orders for Sandman #8 facsimile edition.
This is Comic Book Club News for February 3, 2025.
IDW Expresses “Doubt” About Continuing As A Company After Diamond Bankruptcy:
The Diamond Comics Distributors bankruptcy continues to have repercussions, as IDW has stated a “going concern” about continuing as a company in the wake of the financial fallout.
Per ICv2, the publisher revealed in a fourth quarter earnings report that while not confirmed, given Penguin Random House is owed $9 million by Diamond, they may be passing that debt along to the companies who use PRH as a distributor, including IDW. That means that any future payments from PRH to IDW will instead be used to pay off that debt, leading to zero money sent to IDW for, well, a while.
There have been no formal conversations in this direction, but IDW stated in the report that, “substantial doubt exists about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.” Or in plain English, if IDW isn’t making any money through PRH, they may need to shut down.
While that’s pretty dire, and IDW has suffered financial losses for a long time and sales have been flat, they have been slowly working towards financial solvency, and have consistently been able to raise money to cover their debt. The company has stated they should be able to remain afloat at least through the rest of 2025.
Valiant Delays Beyond Relaunch:
Another bit of fallout from the Diamond debacle? Valiant is delaying their Absolute/Ultimate style relaunch Valiant Beyond.
Per Bleeding Cool, the relaunch was originally scheduled for March, is now on hold until Alien Books, who is in a publishing partnership with Valiant, has more clarity on what is happening with Diamond.
Said Matias Timarchi, Director of Alien Books: “Luckily, what happened with Diamond found us in the best worst-case scenario. We had already decided to publish fewer books during November, December, and January because we were working on relaunching the Valiant line with the Valiant Beyond initiative, which was scheduled for March of this year. We also have new licenses that we haven’t announced yet, and we were planning to do around March/April.”
Timarchi continues to explain they haven’t been paid by Diamond since December, and will have to restructure the company as a result until “the market stabilizes.” In the meantime, the company is concentrating on crowdfunding campaigns, and hopes to continue with the relaunch once the dust clears. We’ll have more on this as it develops.
DC Comics Cancels Orders For Sandman #8:
DC Comics has canceled the orders for the planned February release of the Sandman #8 facsimile edition.
Per 13th Dimension, Lunar Distribution has updated their listing from February 26 to “cancelled,” and sent an email to retailers that, “The Sandman #8 Facsimile Edition will be resolicited at a later date. Existing orders are cancelled.”
As the site notes, this is standard language for a cancellation, and DC does the same with multiple titles throughout the year. Pre-orders have been canceled, and there is no particular reason to note that this cancellation is different from others of the type, and indeed this may just be a change of release date on the reprint.
Recently, writer Neil Gaiman was accused of sexual assault and harassment. DC Comics has yet to make a statement on his actions, as well as their future publishing plans for the writer. Dark Horse Comics has publicly cut ties with Gaiman, while Marvel has told Comic Book Club they are not working with Gaiman, and have no future plans to do so.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. Ha ha yay comics are so fun, right? Yeah, cool cool.
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